Remembering PRESTAGS

First Drive of the New Nikon D7500 with the New 16-80mm Lens

I had my first drive of my new Nikon D7500, with the new Nikon 16-80mm f/2.8 lens, this morning.

It was a grey and miserable day, with light rain. The landscape shots were never going to be exciting.

First testing area, Abbotsford wharf at the end of my street.

None of these shots are processed or cropped. All I have done is reduce the size so they will load quicker.

The first ever shot with the new camera. Yes - grey on grey. Grey sky. Grey water:

This shot of a boat - the Brian H - still captures the reality - grey - but there are some points of colour (eg a yellow stool on the small boat) that show the camera is working fine:

The Sea Scouts jetty (Port Neptune, 2nd Abbotsford Sea Scouts according to the sign). Hunting for more colour. Some nice bright blue to contrast the grey. The lens is good, with clarity right across the photos including the edges:

I noticed the lamps were on the the park. The camera captured the exact warm, pale yellow glow that my eyes saw. Focus was spot on the lamp:

Speaking of yellow, it came out nicely in this shot over a fence opposite the park:

Next, a test of bright red, and using the lens very close (about 40cm away). No problems at all:

Second testing area, Canada Bay around the corner from my house.

I was going for a close up of some pink flowers, when I startled an Ibis under the tree. I managed to get him scuttling away. A good shot for hand held and movement:

The pink flowers. Nice but could be a bit sharper. The flowers were blowing in the breeze a fair bit, so still a good shot in the circumstances:

Next a bit of excitement (well I was excited anyway). I came across a painting van (Tiger Painting Service) with a great range of colours on the van to test the camera. Perfect. The painter working on a house nearby was staring at me and no doubt wondering why I was so interested in his van:

The close up shows that the camera does a great job with colours, and a very sharp image:

Last shot, outside my house. The local council, or maybe NBN, decided the best day to do roadwork and disrupt traffic was late Saturday morning, the busiest time of the week:

So far very impressed with camera and lens. At the wide end 16mm is very useful. I'm still adjusting from so much previous use of the 18-200mm with the extra zoom, however 80mm is good reach. Already I can tell this is an excellent lens.

I'm looking forward to a bright day.

Here's a collage, with a bit of processing, of some other shots from my morning's camera testing:

What were they thinking?

2017 was a very good year for me at the office. I had successfully brought my Manila posting to the originally requested outcome and received my best bonus ever for my development work. I had also written a product that falls into the top five best products I have ever written - largely unsung at the time, it has become a major selling feature late last year. In recognition of my hard work, I knew a deserved a lovely piece of crockery in the kitchen. Unfortunately, the kitchen is brimming with lovely pieces of crockery such that they have overflowed into the dining room cupboards, which are also now full. This left me on the horns of a dilemma, so I had to go with my third option (the second being membership to the art gallery, but when would I find the time!), a subscription to everything coming out of Strategy and Tactics press, at an eye watering US$1000 for two years.

Reviewing it now, I think it was a good decision - I had many evenings of pleasant reading and some great maps and counters to review. From top to bottom:

• the venerable Strategy and Tactics, now up to issue #314,
• Modern War, that provides interesting insights into the current tensions of the world, mostly from a military perspective, which you rarely find the in the news
• World at War, which tries to be S&T but for only World War 2, so perhaps the least interesting of the set, but perhaps the most believable of the games
• Strategy and Tactics Quarterly, the new kid on the block, with a lot of articles on just one topic, no games, but a poster.

A feast of new games, and the anticipation of finding room in the attic for 18 more in 2019. I have failed in one respect, I have not punched the counters of any of them last year. I resolve to so this year. Let the readers of this auspicious blog pausing their eating and spider hunting to hold me so accountable.

The observant would ask why there is a gap? The answer is simple: if a US Civil War game arrives in your mail box, there is a board room I know of where it can be swapped for a Scotch, for some people simply cannot have enough US Civil War games!

And the winner is

I think the best read of them was the Quarterly of Caesar, and how a Roman of modest means, but the highest ambition, can break into the Cursus Honorum. (The article on that was fascinating - young aristocrats were expected to move from government post to post building up an understanding of how the Roman state worked until they reached the role of consul. It gave the state a large pool of experienced leaders to fall back on in times of emergency, and something to consume the energies of the young. The article went to far as to suggest that Rome's resilience during the second Carthaginian War was due to this.) The poster showed Caesar's marches during the Gallic Wars and the Civil war, and is on my wall.

The magazine about Stalingrad was a close second. I do not read a lot of WW2 history, but had heard of this one (and watched the excellent "Enemy at the Gates" with Spetz). Stalingrad was never the objective of the the drive into the Caucasus. The original plan was to get close enough so Germany artillery could interdict the railway and interfere with Stalin's transfer of troops and oil. One of the reasons given for the diversion was that Hitler had become a drug addict. There was a doctor for the German elite who used to mix his own remedies for the wealthy who felt they had lost their vim. These remedies contained stimulants and narcotics. Hitler had appointed him as a personal physician at the time, and soon developed an obsession that a capture of Stalingrad would equate to a defeat of  Stalin.

It was matched with a World at War article where you can attempt to replay the the campaign. You have all that lovely oil to the south and boring Stalingrad to the north. However, the action chits you have to pull each turn keeps pulling you south. I like the action chit idea as it adds a lot of colour to otherwise boring Panzer corps and Guard armies.

An honourable mention goes the World War 3 Quarterly for all the bits that happened when I was little that nearly resulted in me not growing big. I am still reading that one.

Puti-phobia

Puti features in two of the Modern War series. There is much interest in his possible future actions, but the general consensus is that he is more interested with disrupting the US Hegemony to create a series of Russian based alliances, than territorial acquisitions. There is more fear about these alliances backfiring and drawing Russia into a war they did not intend and the US into it. This game, Puti Moves South, looks at the Stans south of Russia and north of Persia and Afghanistan. There is oil and gas there that mostly travels through Russia so disruption to that supply could draw in the Russian army. Interestingly with this game, at the start of each game you roll a die for each power to decide whether it is in the Russian Coalition or US/NATO aligned. Every game would be very different. The latest Modern War, The War on Terror, does the same in the Middle East. It means that every play of the game would be quite different. I think this is one of the games I should set up.

Rise of the Solitaire games

Six of these games are solitaire. I should set up a few this year. I have played a couple in the past, but the issue is that there is no marvellously clever play you can make to give you the game. You are grinding through taking objectives that weaken the strength of the enemy play system, while having some flexibility for random events. That said, I should try them as some game systems are brilliant. Perhaps there is a new John Michael Young other there.

The most intriguing of the game is submarine warfare in the Pacific. Unlikely the Atlantic, submarines featured in navel battles. This game lets you play as the Japanese or the US.

Perhaps this article is better named "What was I thinking?" I stand deprived of a new piece of crockery in my kitchen by pure obsession!

 

A Dawn Walk - Test Driving the Nikkor 18-300 mm

My standard general purpose lens is the Nikkor DX AF-S 18-200 mm 1:3.5-5.6 GII ED VR. It's a great lens and can handle almost all situations.

Before my big European holiday I decided to try a new general purpose lens with a bit of extra zoom. I purchased the Nikkor DX AF-S 18-300 mm 1:3.5-5.6 ED VR. Although I bought it online with plenty of time to spare the lens did not arrive in time. Unfortunately I struck a shop that was "selling apples from an empty cart" ie pretending to have the item in stock, taking your money, and then purchasing it afterwards (probably from Asia). I was very pissed off. In any event, the 18-200 performed fine on my holiday.

I never got around to trying the 18-300 until my early morning walk this week. Probably not a good testing time because I leave in the dark, walk while dawn breaks, and it's still not fully light when I get back home. So apologies in advance - all of the shots are going to be very grey.

The 18-300 was only slightly longer than the 18-200. It's zoom was quick and it focused fast. I did some test shots standing on the shore of Canada Bay and taking a photograph of the Bushell's coffee factory on the other side of the bay, approximately 1 km away.

The 18-300 at 18 mm:

The 18-300 at 28 mm:

The 18-300 at 56 mm:

The 18-300 at 105 mm:

The 18-300 at 200 mm:

The 18-300 at 300 mm:

All shots were handheld, and I haven't done any processing on them. The blue tarpaulin on the boat in the shots at 56 mm and especially at 105 mm show that my kit is recording colour ok - it's just very early in the morning and the dawn is grey.

My favourite photo of the morning was the following one of some rowers. Shot at full zoom at 300 mm. I think this shot captures the action of the four rowers, and behind them a single rower going in the opposite direction, and behind him the coach in a speed boat. Nicely framed between two larger boats (if I say so myself). The fluro jackets add a splash of colour in the middle of the photograph:

Here is a straight comparison between the extreme ranges of the lens.

Two men in a boat about 900 metres away. At 18 mm:

The men in a boat at 300 mm:

I cropped the men in the boat straight out of the shot at 300 mm just using microsoft paint on my work computer. Not bad detail for something 900 metres away. There is also a lady rower sitting on the shore behind which I didn't notice in the other two shots:

My all time favourite lens in the Nikkor AF-S 70-300 mm 1:4.5-5.6 G ED VR. This lens is just so sharp at all ranges. The 18-300 is not quite as sharp but it's a great lens, and of course covers the 18-70 mm spectrum as well.

I need to test the 18-300 in proper light, and do a comparison with the 18-200 in the same conditions.

  

Nikon D5500

I'm playing around a bit more with my D5500.

I've mostly been using manual focus but getting some bad images. A few good ones, but most are not brilliant. I'm going to use auto focus for a while now to see how I go.

I took a cockatoo with a bit of zoom and manual focus, and it wasn't too bad. It was early evening grey light when I took this shot.

I managed to get a reasonable shot of a ferry, again on manual focus, which was moving pretty fast towards me.

I'm now taking everything on RAW plus jpeg (at the maximum fine setting). I played around with the ferry RAW image using Corel Aftershot software and tried to make the blues and reds a bit brighter, and the image a bit sharper. I'm not sure how I succeeded. The water is definitely more blue. I also notice the green trees in the background are brighter and have a lot more detail. Peter said RAW would enable darker areas to be revealed and he was right. The software has a steep learning curve which I need to master in addition to learning the camera.

I'm looking forward to catching up with Peter soon to have some in person tutorials. You always learn faster when someone shows you.

U.N.I.

Yesterday late afternoon I went for a quiet stroll and I saw a U.N.I.

I was enjoying a nice cool breeze which had come in as relief from our heat wave. I walked along the bay with one of my older cameras (I've turned into a Thygo, and I think all the cameras need a share of usage. It justifies the constant new purchases). It was also very grey and I want to test my new camera on something more colourful.

I saw a U.N.I.

What is a U.N.I.?

It is not bees or beehives. One of my neighbours keeps bees on his roof.

It is not pelicans, or a pair of pelicans.

It is not a travelling Italian street food truck.

It is not a man with a travel BBQ preparing dinner on the shore.

It is not a lonely boat on the mud flats.

It is not a strange artifice of light caused by the setting sun behind the Bushell's coffee factory.

It is not a one-legged seagull. Have you noticed that there is always at least one one-legged seagull.

No, a U.N.I is something else.

An U.N.I is an Unidentified Naked Idiot.

I saw this clown shouting in the water with his beer can and making lude gestures at his small thing. He had a small crowd of onlookers.

I just wanted a nice quiet walk.

I am two timing

We may have sworn a vow. We may have meant that there would be no other. But, a man has needs, and a wargamer is no different. And why can't I have another on the side. It's not like it means anything. PRESTAGS is still my first, but without a turn I am like a didgeridoo without a breath, a muslim without a prayer rug, and orthodox church without an orthodox Pope. I didn't want it to go this way, but there it is.

I have joined a PBEM as France playing Wars of Napoleon with The General's HQ club. There, I have said it. Now shoot me. Preferably with 12 pounders on the field of Austerlitz!

But now is the winter of our discontent! With 19th century armies, you do not march around in winter or you have 19th century starving stragglers. So for the first 12 turns, I just make plans.

I have spoken with my good ally King Charles IV of Spain, and we have divided up Europe in a more ambitious subdivision than Hitler and Mussolini ever dreamt of. (My dream is to have a Charles on the throne on England before long!) However, as long as he gets rid of Gibraltar, he will be my hero.

The game is being hosted by the Austrian player. I am being as nice to him as possible to start with since he will have to put up with my armies marching around his country and dissolving his Holy Roman Empire before long. I suspect he lives in Austria based on his timezone. I haven't got to know the rest of the players, but we are all polite and swearing we know nothing about the game but will do our best.

In the mean time I am sitting in Boulogne with a horde of flat bottomed boats waiting to get across the channel.

While I wait for spring, I build the forces I need for the coming summer of love. All of Europe is at peace with me apart from England, so I need to buy a fleet.

Or perhaps I need the Old Guard. They don't lose a battle until Leipzig in 1813 - 8 years from now.

Whatever I choose, these 5 minutes turns are not at all painful, so I have offered to be a stand in for another player in another game. No, I suppose I have a 45 minute EDEE turn to attend to. I could be half way across the map in that much time, not stuck in a stalemate!

Carrier Battlegroup Solitaire

So I have played my first scenario of Carrier Battlegroup Solitaire. My summary is that it is a good way to spend a typhoon impacted Sunday, but I would like there to be more chance to finesse the game. In fact, the main decision you make during the game is what planes and crew you put on your carrier. Once underway, you just use what you have without much variation. Also. most of the map does not get used - there is not much maneuver.

I chose the simplest scenario to start with - clearing the Danish straits. There was a contact in the North Sea I had to address too.

Given the short range of the scenario, I opted for a land based aircraft to support my battlegroup. I was given three cruisers and two destroyers as escort. I put a few fighters (never used them) and few bombers and an anti sub helicopter (he was the main hero). I also put on board an Electronic War crew (to help with contact and keeping the soviet alert level down) and a (match winning) camera crew to report on my victories.

I was given an insultingly low leadership skill level - I'd need to play the campaign to increase it.

So my first move was obvious. Sail up to the Soviet contact and hit it with all my air assets. (I can't fly everything because of the limit of my flight deck, but I can put six planes aloft for each battle, and that sufficed.) It turned out to be a guided missile frigate escorting three subs. I had very little in the way of sub handling air power (just my helicopter and ground based P-3, so although I quickly dispatched the frigate, two subs were left at the end of the combat round.

Combat is arranged in inner and outer zones. In the first round, the two outer zones fight. In the second round, everyone left alive going into the inner zone for a final melee. So you can see my CV and helicopter in the inner zone being protected by the planes from the frigates anti-air.

Anyway, my battlegroup stayed in place next turn and launched again and cleared the subs from the map. Objective one complete.

Over the next two turns, I sailed quietly to Germany with only inclement weather to deal with. On arrival, though, I made sudden contact with an unexpected soviet battlegroup with two subs and a cruiser.

This time I put my destroyers in the outer zone to try to get the subs before they made it to the CV. The Soviet cruiser shot down an F-14, and the soviet subs damaged both my destroyers before they could get into action. My planes got rid of the cruiser, crippled one sub and damaged another. This meant another round with a damaged nuclear sub in the same zone as by CV!

Fortunately the sub went after damaged destroyer and sunk it. The cruisers accounted for the sub and my victory was complete. Well, only just. I was penalised heavily for my losses. It was the fact of the camera crew that my victory was assured. I got good footage and propaganda on all but the latest battle. (Perhaps the camera man was on the destroyer!)

Anyway a victory is a victory, so it called for wine and cheese.

Of Horses and Blimps

On Sunday I traveled to Camden with daughters #1 and #3 for horse riding. There were more than horses out there, as a blimp sailed directly over the horse riding centre.

My trusty Nikon did a pretty good job with the zoom lense, but also achieving focus because it was somewhat unsteady holding the camera above my head.

Fun with exocets!

Paul is clearly impressed with the impact of sentried war ships in the new version of Thygo's Thrill. This has called for a new tactic called "Exocet".

Last two turns, I joyfully knocked out two killer satellites with short range missiles. (Short range missiles cost 12, attack satellites cost 98.) To add insult to injury, one of Paul's attack satellite bounced embarrassingly off a Marshal Ney satellite.

This turn I tried my missiles on two sentried cruisers (short range missle costs 12, cruiser cost 60).

Outcome:

Trust, Ingenuity, Perseverance and Patience

Space Empires 4X - First Contact

Following Paul's coaxing with earlier posts, I had a go at a solitaire scenario in Space Empires 4X. I had to be Terran because I recognise more planets in their set (although I was sorely tempted by the set with Kronos). It started well with my explorers finding useful resources near the home work, but my colony ships had no where to go until Rigel came along.

I colonised that and kept looking. When the first economic turn came around, I grabbed and pencil and began to populate a score sheet. Then it occured to me that someone had made an Excel for this - and searched and found. Much easier, particularly while learning. Exploring further, I found a barren world. This posed a dilemma to my economic strategy. To cost to populate a barren world is 8 + 25 (colony ship plus terra forming technology). The return is nothing in the first turn, 1 in the next, then 3 and finally 5 thereafter. That is a 7+ turn playoff period, so I demurred.

More exploring found resources all around Rigel, so my miner got busy. (The snap is a bit blurry, but that's him on the top (hubward end?) of the map.

I now made an ecomonic faux-pas. I began building a large merchant navy. These act as roads in this game, improving movement and income, but in retrospect I did not need them this early. Their return of investment is a bit worse than terra forming - perhaps 12 turns for full pay back, but more on them later.

Next turn I discovered Eden, Vulcan and Odessey and colonisation became a primary goal. However, cash was do good, I began to seriously invest in technology. I brought my ship size level to 3 so I could build cruisers and purchased attack and defense technologies. I was feeling invincible:

A cocky explorer headed off to deep space and as repayed by discovering a hostile race, the Sarvaasi, whose only strategy is to build military and attack. Peace overtures were ignored and the explorer died.

The economist part of me thought "well that reduces my maintenance costs". (I could get a job in Canberra with that thinking, reducing our education expenditure!) But otherwise, life was good in the empire. Production had grown from 20 to 58 in 5 turns with lots of bonuses from the miners. Colonies were all linked with trade routes and I had money on my hands. I weakened, and colonised the barren world.

(Apologies for to blurry photograpy. I stopped using my flash.)

At the seventh Economic Phase, disaster. An evil race, known only by the acronym NRA, decided to wipe out my empire. Their motto: "War ships don't kill sentients: sentients kill sentients, but Doomsday Machines are much more efficient!" They launched a level 2 Doomsday machine at me, just two sectors away from Vulcan. Fortunately, my empire was connected with merchant routes, so I easily consolidated my entire fleet at Vulcan under the able command of Admiral Brendan Mahoney.

I had hoped that the DM would head towards the Alien world next to it, but according to the rules, there is only one kind of sentient the NRA is committed to exterminating.

So with my entire force facing the DM off Vulcan, Adm B Mahoney picked up the die. You can guess the rest. The space station did get two hits on the DM in the battle, and a cruiser got a third. But in the first round, the DM destroyed all four destroyers (4 x 6 or less on a 10 sided dice). Next round it destroyed one cruiser and damaged another (3 x 5 or less and 1 false throw). Final turn, it destroyed the space station and the last cruiser (3 x 4 or less and 1 x 5 or less). Emphatic. To add injury to insult, it demolished and consumed Vulcan to recover two hits. The Vulcans were "surprised". It then consumed Eden and recovered all its strength and headed towards Terra.

Emergency building on Terran meant we had 4 cruisers and a battle station a Rigel when the DM arrived. Without Adm Mahoney, we knocked it out with the loss of just one cruiser. However, next turn another DM appeared from the NRA. They were taking no chances and wanted only body count! However, it was bed time so I called it a night.

I only then noticed that I had missed a posioned package from ThygoCanberra in the email, so I'll attend to that this evening.

Shirase Icebreaker

This week I have noticed another interesting ship as I cross Anzac bridge into the city.

The ship is the Shirase, a Japanese Self Defence Force icebreaker. The Shirase is 12,650-tons and is one of the world's most powerful icebreakers. However, it recently had a bad run. The Shirase became stranded in the Antarctic Ocean on Feb. 16, being the first Japanese Antarctic research vessel to run aground since Japanese research voyages to the South Pole started about 60 years ago.

I am particularly impressed by the colour, which matches this website, and the dining room, which would serve as a wonderful wargaming room. I wonder whether the Japanese Navy would allow a few extra passengers for a long Antarctic boys 'weekend'?

I went to see 300 Rise of Empire today

Spoiler alert. 

Jordan and I went to see 300 today. It was a reasonable action movie except:

1. The Themistocles was a warrior rather than a general.
2. Hoplites did not fight bare chested. The movie showed no greaves or cuirasses. 
3. The Athenians did not have axeman at Marathon. (Check Prestags!)
4. The Athenians did not dance around like gladiators on ecstacy when attacking.
5. Darius the Great was not at Marathon. Neither was Xerxes. 
6. Themistocles did not know how to shoot an arrow and probably would never touch a bow as it was the weapon of the Scythian mercenaries who policed Athens
7. They left out the famous run back to Athens
8. The Greek Bireme was a clumsy affair and was not more maneuverable or better at ramming than the Phonecian (Persian) craft.
9. Themistocles was famous for badgering the Athenians into building triremes. There were none in the movie.
10. Themistocles won no engagements at Euboea. That naval battle was inconclusive but a storm blew up and damaged the Persian fleet. 
11. The Parthenon had not been built at this time. There was no colossal statue of Athena
12. The Persian admiral was not a woman or a Greek
13. The Battle of Salamis was not fought in open water.
14. The Spartans did not have a fleet at this time.
15. Spartan queens did not lead armies. (That's one reason that they had two kings!)

I did like the obvious dislike and distrust between the Spartans and the Athenians and some of Themistocles' orations.

Despite the video game like gore and a decided weird sex scene, it was a reasonable sequel to 300 and clearly leaves open a further movie on the Peleponesian War.

The coffee is hot and the board is set up...

Do you see the display on the bottom right? That is the fire range of the Galleasses. The Holy League has six, the moslems have none. The three little displays show the firing range of the rest of the fleet. On the left hand side you see the set up zone for the Holy League. The pairs up the front are the Galleasses being towed by Galleys. Basically, you get a Kill Zone in the front of the battle where the Holy League dominates. On the wings, there is great mayhem, as in the actual battle, where the Moslem galley superiority gives them a slight edge over the greater use of gun powder by the Holy League.

So who wants to punch the counters?

A PRESTAGS Sermon

Today is the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. At Mass there was a great sermon about the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and the defeat of the Saracens which saved Christendom. At the battle the Christian army and navy invoked the Most Holy Name of Jesus and achieved a victory against overwhelming numbers.

I did not catch the name of the visiting US Priest who gave this sermon, but it was very detailed and the Reverend Father is clearly a keen student of military history. If this Priest visits Canberra Thygo is in for a treat.

I note that Strategy & Tactics magazine produced a wargame of the Battle of Lepanto. I might track down a copy of this game following the sermon. YEOMAN includes a number of sixteenth century battles but obviously not Lepanto which was essentially a naval battle.

Reflecting on the Battle of Lepanto today causes me sadness. What was Christendom is now but a remnant, and the Saracens are taking over by invitation with misconceived multicultural policies and other social engineering failures. Is there anybody left in Christendom to invoke the Most Holy Name of Jesus?

"For there is no other Name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4.12)

Paul has modified his strategy!

I think Paul has formed a new elite group of warriors:

Paul is nothing if not resourceful, and if he sees a good strategy, he copies it. The exception being the Diaspora - he must face many defeats before he would take that on.

My peace loving seed pod was disturbed by screams of "Für den Kaiser!" as a near by transport went down. This makes things interesting!

A different point of view

I find Paul such an intriguing friend because we always has a different point of view. Take the Interesting Ship: Paul sees it from above - I see it from a dog's eye view:

(It is in the picture - right underneath the middle of the arch a slightly obscured by the swing bridge.)

Take the classic Australian meal. Whilst I do a leg of lamb a few times a year, I find myself drawn to the diversity of eat out options to find the many tastes I have not sampled before:

Take Prestags: Paul sees a nice system and a collectable. I see a playable game worthy of an online version - as a playable game, not a collectible.

Take Empire: Paul has fun playing hunter against my swarm of transports. I focus on expansion and industrial optimisation.

Take the IPCC: I am fascinated what 1000 top scientists can achieve in collaboration. Paul sees the opportunity for unaccountable manipulation of world opinion.

I am intrigued to see what Paul makes of a software conference.

Interesting Ship

I have seen this interesting ship near ANZAC bridge the last two mornings I have travelled to work.

It is the Ocean Shield, an Australian navy offshore support vessel that will be used for humanitarian and disaster relief. I like the bright red colour, the helipad mounted high over the front of the ship, and the self sufficient crane.

This ship will be able to undertake patrols in the Southern Ocean providing surveillance, detection and apprehension of any vessels operating illegally. It is also able to operate in sub-Antarctic weather conditions.

The Ocean Shield is the sister ship of the Ocean Protector which is currently operated by Customs and Border Protection. The 6,500 tonne ship is 105m long and 21m wide. It has accommodation for up to 100 people, more than 1000 metres of deck area, and a helipad.

It's cool.

No Comrade, Ship is Real

Thygocanberra doubted the photograph of the awesome / epic ship but it was real.

Ship was the Russian space control ship the "Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin".

From Wikipedia: Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin (Russian: «Космона́вт Ю́рий Гага́рин») was a Soviet space control-monitoring ship that was devoted to detecting and receiving satellite communications. Named after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, she was completed in December 1971 to support the Soviet space program. The ship also conducted upper atmosphere and outer space research.

It had very distinguishable looks due to two extremely large and two smaller parabolic "dish" antennas placed on top of the hull.

In Soviet times, the Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin was the world's largest communications ship and was the flagship of a fleet of communications ships. These ships greatly extended the tracking range when the orbits of cosmonauts and unmanned missions were not over the USSR. In 1975, the ship was a part of the Soviet-American Apollo-Soyuz joint test program.

The communications ships belonged to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The maritime part fell under the responsibility of the Baltic- and Black sea shipping. The ships had home ports in the Ukraine (Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin and the other surveillance ship Akademik Sergei Korolev), so after the fall of the Soviet Union they were transferred to Ukraine – ending their role in spaceflight.

She was sold for scrap shortly after the break-up of the Soviet Union along with the Akademik Sergei Korolev.

Awesome Photograph

Sometimes you see a photograph of something that is just awesome. Or, as I think the teenage kids would say, is just epic. This is awesome / epic and I want one: